We’re just now starting down the road of the EHR replacement cycle. Meaningful use has driven many to adopt an EHR too quickly and now the buyer’s remorse is setting in and we’re going to see a wave of EHR replacements. Some organizations are going to wait until meaningful use runs it course, but many won’t even be able to wait.
With this prediction in mind, I was interested by this Allscripts whitepaper: Key Hidden Reasons Your EHR Is Not Sustainable and What To Do About It. I always learn a lot about a company when I read whitepapers like this one. It says a lot about the way the company thinks and where they’re taking their company.
For example, in the whitepaper, Allscripts provides a list of questions to consider when looking to replace your EHR:
- How do you DEPLOY the right core IT systems to succeed with value-based care?
- How do you CONNECT to coordinate care with key stakeholders and manage your population?
- How do you better ENGAGE patients in their own health?
- How do you analyze mountains of raw data to ADVANCE patient and financial outcomes?
- How do you get everyone within your own organization to FOLLOW THE ROADMAP to EHR success?
You can see that these questions share a certain view of where healthcare IT and EHR is headed. Imagine how this criteria would compare with the criteria for EHR selection even five years ago. Although, I wonder how many doctors really share this type of approach to EHR selection. Do doctors really want their EHR to handle the above list? Should they be worrying about the above items?
I don’t doubt that doctors are going to be more involved in population health and they’re going to need to engage patients more. However, this list does seem to lack some of the practical realities that doctors still need from their EHR. In fact, as I write this, I wonder if it’s still too early to know what a next generation EHR will need to include. Of course, that won’t stop frustrated EHR users from replacing their EHR just the same.
Enough with the forced give-my-email-address-up-again stuff, geez.
If it was Allscripts forcing this, I might understand, but why you add another layer on to this….
end rant.
Here’s my notice to all who want to switch EHRs…be careful.
I regularly deal with half a dozen EHR vendors, specifically with their support side.
Seems like every time I feel like nobody can be worse than vendor “x”, vendor “y” proves me wrong.
It is the sad state of the EHR world right now…support SUX!
You might not be able to tell that I just spent 2 hours with support, who’s first language is not English, and got NO WHERE!
You would think that a big EHR vendor would spend the money needed to have a solid remote access system where they can quickly and easily remote into the problem PC.
Not this vendor. They try multiple free tools until one works.
And that is just the beginning.
Yet, I am comforted with the knowledge that vendor “y” will stink just as bad.
So, again I say, don’t switch too quickly…you might regret it.
John Brewer,
Once you put in your email once, we won’t ask you for it again in future ones (assuming it’s the same computer).
You bring up an important point (and I’ll make it a future blog post). Change doesn’t always mean it’s a change to something better. It could be a change to something worse. Although, I have found that most people who change EHR are happier with their next one since they have a better understanding of what to look for in their next EHR. Not always the case, but generally true.
Either way, I feel like my info is in your system enough, but I get it.
Yes, people will generally make a better choice the second time, but since they usually don’t understand why the first time around failed, they’ll still have plenty of issues.
Plus, who wants to admit they screwed up twice?
[…] the comments of my post “EHR Replacement Roadmap to Success“, John Brewer provided a great reminder that changing EHR software doesn’t always mean […]